OH Led question

[mpl330]

Evening all,

Going through the process of re-interfacing my OH and as I have been removing the old interfaces and noting the connections I have found that certain annunciator lights have 2 Leds, 1 bright & 1 dim.
Has anyone else configured this way with the 2 leds or is it just a 'peculiarity' of my old interface / setup?
The annunciators with the double Leds are:
Valve Open
L & R Engine and Spar Valve Closed
L & R Valve & Cowl Valve Open

Thanks for any advice
Cheers
Mike

[fordgt40]

Hi Mike

Where you need full brightness and also dim states on the annunciators then you can either

1) Use two leds of different brightness levels - though I suspect that it may be difficult to get an even illumination across the annunciator text. This will require two I/O outputs

2) Use two bright leds in parallel and control the illumination levels by using two I/O outputs with different series resistor values. This will also need two diodes on the positive feed lines to avoid reverse voltages.

This setup has the advantage that you can get an even spread of light and control the brightness levels by the resistor values. If it helps I can post a circuit diagram

Regards

David

[mpl330]

Hi David,

To clarify a little - previously the 2 leds were connected to seperate I/O outputs in fsbus but I am now trying to remap and will need to code in SIOC the variables to the outputs. I suppose what I am saying is do i need a bright and a dim setting and are 2 different fsuipc or Pm variables assigned to the 2 different led's? Is there a systems situation in that they may be bright or dim?

Thanks
Mike

[fordgt40]

Mike

If you want realism then yes

A number of the blue annunciators have two states,  generally dim to reflect switch state ie open or bright for in transit or to flag a problem

If you want both bright and dim states then you will need two SIOC outputs

Regards

David

[mpl330]

Ok thanks David - thought you may say that!
Reason for asking was I have 2 Master Cards that will give 2 x 45 outputs and I needed 107 outputs if I connect everything as it was under the old cards - was looking to save 17 connections somewhere if I could 
I can probably save some on the doors seeing as there are seperate connectors for each of the doors so could just use 2 outputs, 1 for front left entry and then connect the others (Aft entry, fwd service and aft service as pmdg only offers 2 door states) together on the 2nd output - the overwing doors are unlikely to need showing really...
Apart from getting another card any other ideas?

Cheers
Mike

[fordgt40]

Hi Mike

The only suggestion I can make is to hard wire annunciator to switches where possible ie yaw damper switch to its annunciator, also equipment cooling switches/annunciators etc. You could sacrifice realism on non-essential functions and hardwire rather than use the programme logic and I/O - Ian Sissons has done a lot this way. The cleanest way would be to get another master card or USBOutputs board - the outputs will always come in handy some day for those little extras

Good luck

David

[mpl330]

Quick update:
Having spent my few days off soldering a stack of connections to plug into the existing pre-wired connections I came to do my 1st tests with opencockpits cards...

Unfortunately it seems I have a duff USB expansion card 
Mastercards work fine if plugged into J1 but if I attach one to any other port (j2,j3 or j4) it doesn't get recognised! 1 email sent off to opencockpits to see what can be done!!!

Oh well, hopefully the tactile keys will arrive from HK soon so I can sort the FMC... then it will be the ped & mcp/mip..................

Cheers
Mike

[fordgt40]

Mike

Trials and tribulations eh? Good luck and keep us posted

Regards

David

[mpl330]

Thanks David, seriously feel as though I am going backwards at the moment - perhaps I should have started with something simpler than the OH  but it was that letting me down (in terms of fsbus not working consistently) that forced me to change all the IO cards...
At least I am now understanding how all the inputs and outputs work - could just do with a working USB card now!

Cheers
Mike

[Trevor Hale]

Hey Mike... are we having FUN Yet....  LOL  No worries bud, you will get there.  Dont ever regret starting anything, cause eventually you would have had to tackle it. 

Great job, and please keep us posted on your progress.

[mpl330]

Hi,

Lots of fun now!!! Had inspiration during the night 
For aesthetic and layout purposes I had connected my 2 master cards to J1 & J4 of the USB card and when they didnt work had tried connecting 1 card to J1 (success) and then J2 - J4 (no success) - I suddenly realised perhaps they have to be connected in order i.e. 1 card only on J1, 2 cards only on J1 & J2. Tried it tonight and success 
In the meantime OC support had also confirmed this is how it was designed to work so next steps are:
wire up the led resistors to the ribbon cables from the master cards
get to grips with sioc code to make it work with PM systems
wait for the keys from hong kong for the fmc as the 1st lot have disappeared in the post 

Cheers
Mike

[fordgt40]

Mike

It`s great when you solve things yourself! All part of the learning curve. Good luck with SIOC, it is difficult to understand initially, but well worth it in the end.

Regards

David

[Bob Reed]

Mike

It`s great when you solve things yourself! All part of the learning curve. Good luck with SIOC, it is difficult to understand initially, but well worth it in the end.

Regards

David

Get ready for a number of sleepless nights! LOL Seems like the more you come up with the more your brian works over time on ya!!